of which, at the very least, he thought unnecessary: but having put himself into Evelyn's hands, he submitted in very despair. Having retired to an obscure part of the court, he was annoyed by the chairman, who, in more fashionable scenes in town was his old acquaintance, and who summoned him to take a place close at his side; a station to which his fortune and family-consequence in the county gave him every right.

Lord Bellenden, who thus presided, was a nobleman of great personal respectability, remarkably mild in his manners, and distinguished for integrity and good sense. He had a great portion of what Tremaine called misplaced industry; dedicating himself, in truth, to the interests of the riding of which he was lord lieutenant, and understanding and administering the business of his useful and important office, even in its minutiæ, with ease to himself and satisfaction to all. He found his reward in the respect of his neighbours, and a content of mind which asserted itself in a very benignant countenance, and a plain but hearty mode of address.

Called upon, in the face of the whole court, to the most conspicuous part of it, Tremaine was forced, in self-defence, to condescend to survey his neighbours, or, as he was shocked to hear them called, his brother magistrates and colleagues in office. Nor could he help being struck with the contrast to one

another, which many of them exhibited. The plain manners and appearance of the elder squires gave some notion of the simple patriarchal character which might still belong, if he pleased, to the English country gentleman. Not so their sons, who thought the year misspent if they did not pass a considerable part of it in London, where they actually figured with dandy reputation, and were so engaged by the charms of the toilette, that the old hereditary charms of the stable were in a fair way of being forgotten.

As all of these latter were purblind, their glasses, directed towards the women, gave them too constant occupation to attend to the business of the court; and, by degrees, most of them glided off to parties at billiards, or a trotting match made the day before ; leaving the cases before them to the care of the chairman, a few of the clergy, and a retired lawyer or two, now become magistrates.

And here, reader, shall we, or not, lament the total loss amongst us of that famed character, the old English country squire? Let no fine gentleman, or man of refinement (whether in mere manners or politics, or even in literature), bless himself at our Gothic question, or suppose such a character beneath the moralist's or critic's notice. Though it seems to belong to the mere class of the " Fruges consumere nati," with all its apparent insignificance, its im

painted it in delicate and

portant littlenesses, and even its coarseness and tyranny, it has contrived (or it has been contrived for it) to engage our dearest interest. Genius has in fact consecrated it to fame, and never-dying colours; genius both strong; for it has been thought worthy the most amiable touches of Addison, and the sharpest chisel of Fielding. But, ah! these sleep in their graves; and could they revive, they would look in vain for those traits in English life and manners, which in Sir Roger, the Tory fox-hunter, and the better understood, because less delicate Western, enabled them to fix and fascinate the taste and fancy of every age and every disposition..

None of these were here; and even in the elder squires, there was an air of knowledge of the world, and of London manners, that destroyed all notion of that rustic simplicity, which, from one end of the island to the other, can now only be read of as a thing past and gone.

If there was any stamp of originality, any sharp protuberances of appearance, not rubbed down into general fineness by a general collision with the world, it was in some of the clerical magistrates, who came full of importance, arrayed in full suits of rusty black, and high-topped boots carefully tied over the knee, with garters of green ferret or wash-leather. Their uncouthness, and the expression of their formal

civilities to all their neighbours, shewed that, except upon such occasions, they scarcely ever quitted their parishes.

Tremaine, though his fortune and family were well-known and respected, felt himself isolated in a place in which, however irksome to his fastidiousness, he could not help perceiving that the most useful business was carried on; where good order was strictly cultivated, and justice, on the whole, thoroughly distributed.

Evelyn, too, had begged him to lay aside his refinement, and bear with whatever might occur, at least till he had appreciated it on a fair trial; and he insensibly became less fretful within himself. He also did not fail to remark the deference which all ranks (including even the counsel at the bar) paid to every thing that fell from the lips of Evelyn.

In one or two cases, however, which came from his own immediate neighbourhood, where character was concerned, he found himself appealed to by his brother magistrates, and he felt obliged, though ashamed, to confess his utter ignorance on the subject. He could only excuse himself on the score of his absence from the country; while Dr. Evelyn made up for his want of information, and detailed all that was desired,-which his daily activity fully enabled him to do,

Great questions arose upon a gaol, an infirmary, and a county bridge. As possessing almost the greatest property of any man in the court, Tremaine was here particularly addressed. But he had scarcely heard of them. His friend, however, took, or rather was called to take a leading part; and though there was much opposition to many of his suggestions, they were almost all carried by a considerable majority.

FROM the court the Bench adjourned to dinner; and reader, if thou hast ever had the good fortune to feast thyself in the great room of a great inn in a county town, enlarged by three or four rooms being thrown into one, for the purpose of giving ample space to "their worships," thou wilt figure to